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One of the most distinctive bands of the early 90s, Brainiac were broken by the accident that killed their founder in 1997. The surviving members explain why they have reformedTo the late Tim Taylor, the thrift stores of Dayton, Ohio harboured unimaginable treasures. “We’d spend every Saturday and Sunday thrifting,” remembers Juan Monasterio, his friend and future bandmate in Brainiac, long-lost avant-punks who are soon to play their first UK shows in over 25 years. “We’d fill shopping carts with weird vintage clothes, paying five bucks for the lot.” Even more precious were the relics of the city’s booming funk scene of the 1970s, when the Ohio Players, Slave and Sun strutted the earth. “They all used crazy synthesisers, and then sold them at the pawn shop when their careers ended,” says drummer Tyler Trent. “Tim bought them all. I was there the day he grabbed three Moogs for 90 bucks!”Taylor instinctively figured out how to wring wild sounds from these archaic synths. A prodigious musical talent, he was the son of jazz musician Terry Taylor, playing guitar in his dad’s ensemble and goth outfit Dance Positive before joining glam biker-rock group Pink Lady and the Lenny Kravitz-inspired the Wizbangs with Monasterio. Taylor and Monasterio conceived Brainiac in 1991, under heavy influence of the Stooges and David Bowie’s Low. “We wanted to use these synths, and Tim sang through his Yamaha guitar processor because he’d never sung before. And we really cared about how the band would look.” Indeed, when Trent auditioned, “Tim was wearing a leather jacket, leather pants and a white rabbit-fur vest. He played me a couple of songs, and I was blown away. It was like nothing I’d ever heard.” Continue reading...